Killawatt - Contort

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  • Portsmouth's Matt Watt started out in the rather rigid world of 2010s dark dubstep, but his productions lately have grown more shy of cliché. His career peak came this year with Emigre, which borrowed from techno as much as dubstep, dissolving both in a soup of mewling feedback and distortion. Contort, a three-tracker for long-term home Osiris Music, continues in that vein. Its fractured beats come layered with sheets of hiss and murky ambience, as if we're brushing through thick cobwebs in an abandoned attic. On "Contort," Watt gets a little lost in his deconstructive agenda. The track's stumbling percussion and clouds of texture are sculpted into a head-nodding loop, but in spite of the hefty sub-bass pushing it forward, the whole thing never quite achieves lift-off. The other two are more energetic, their rugged syncopations calling to mind Livity Sound. "Flustercuck''s muscular drums beat out a sombre tattoo amidst amplified hiss and crackle, before lacerating snares and hi-hats notch up the energy halfway through. With its looser backbeat and klaxon-like synth tones, "Gutter" is the crowdpleaser. As with the whole EP, its structure is too linear to produce any major surprises, but there's plenty to get absorbed in beneath its austere surface.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Contort B1 Flustercuck B2 Gutter
RA